Plant for pressing fabrics



Nov. 13, 1928. 1,691,477

' A. D. HEATON ET AL V PLANT FOR PRESSING FABRICS 7 Filed Sept. 17, 1927 Patented Nov, 13, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE."

ARNOLD DOUGLAS HEATON AND JOHN OBADIAH LANG, OF LIVERSEDGE, ENGLAND.

rLAn'r ron ranssme FABRICS.

Application filed September 17, 1927, Serial No.

Our invention in or relating to plant for pressing fabrics has particular reference to that type of plant in which the fabric to be pressed is first placed in a papering apparatus to have sheets of press paper inserted between its folds, the pile being then transferred to a press and, after the pressing operation, re-transferred to the papering apparatus to be turned or have the papers inserted in new positions, or to have the pa pers removed. p

In a known papering apparatus, two vertically movable and'iuXta-posited platforms are provided, each having a relatively long lift according to the quantity of fabric to be dealt with at one operation, and there is also provided adjacent one of these platforms a third vertically movable platform with a relatively short lift to hold or receive press papers. I

In preparing the fabric, a pile of press pa pers is placed upon the short lift platform and upon the more remote of the two long lift platforms. The fabric is fed in over suitable guide rollers by a conveying motion and is laid in folds upon the unoccupied, or centre, long lift platform or upon a trolley resting on the platform, press papers being drawn alternately from the two piles and inserted between the folds. The platform which is receiving the fabric is gradually lowered, and the two platforms containing the piles of papers are gradually raised, as the work proceeds, so asto keep the tops of the piles substantially level. The papered pile is removed to a press and after the pressing operation is returned to the papering apparatus where it is transferred fold by fold from one long lift platform to the other and the position of the press papers changed so that the unpressed edges of the folds are now brought to the centre. The pile is then again removed to the press and finally back to the centre platform of the paporing apparatus where the fabric is run out through a suitable cuttling device, the papers being thrown out alternately on to the short lift platform and the unoccupied long lift platform. The centre platform containing the fabric pile is gradually raised as the pile decreases in depth whilst .the two platforms receiving the papers are gradually lowered as the piles of papers deposited thereon increase in depth.

Whilst apparatus as above described has 220,128, and in Great Britain February 9, 1927.

been found very effective we have found that its efliciency can, in a simple manner, be considerably improved, and the means whereby this improvement is attained constitute the present invention.

According to our invention, instead of providing only one short lift platform adjacent one of the two long lift platforms, and one fabric conveying device and one cuttling device, we now propose to provide two short lift platforms one adjacent each of the. long liftplatforms, that is to say the two long lift platforms, in juXta-position as before, are arranged in the centre whilst a short lift platform is provided on the outer side of each of the long lift platforms. In addition to duplicating the short lift platforms we duplicate also the fabric conveying means and the" cuttling devise, so that fabric may be conveyed to or withdrawn-from either of the two long lift platforms.

The accompanying drawing illustrates plant according to the invention, a and 6 representing respectively the two long-lift platforms capable of being ra sed and lowered in the usual way by means of hydraulic cylinders a and b or equivalent means. The two short-lift platforms are indicated at a and b the platform a being disposed adjacent the outer side of the platform a, and the platform 5 on the outer side of the platform 6. Hydraulic cylinders of and b are provided for raising and lowering the platforms (4 and b a and 6 represent suitably driven conveying rollers for conveying fabric to and from the respective platforms at and b, and a and Ff represent cuttling devices by which the fabric as it is delivered from the respective platforms a and I) may 3e cuttled or la d in 9 folds. The two conveying devices must necessarily'synchronise in speed, and any suitable known means may be utilized to ensure t 1S.

The platform a is shown as having thereona pile of fabric F which, it is assumed, has been pressed, with papers between each fold in the usual way. F represents a fabric which is being run in on to the platform I). As the fabric F is run out, the papers in its folds are ejected alternately onto the shortlift platform a and against the fabric F descending on to, the platform 6 to form folds therein, the alternate folds of the fabric F receiving papers from a pile on the IOU short-lift platform 6 If a pile of papered and pressed fabric were being run off the platform 7), then one half of the papers would be ejected on to the short-lift platform 6 and the other half would be inserted into a fabric being run in on to the platfrom a. lVhen a pile of pressed fabric is being papered out, therefore, that is to say when the press papers are being removed, instead of one of the long-lift platforms being utilized as hitherto simply to r ceive one half of the ejected pa aers, itis new utilized to receive a new fabric, the papers which would otherwise be deposited on the platform being now inserted auton'iatically into the new fabric whilst the papers for the alternate folds of said new fabric are drawn from the auxiliary or addit onal short-lift platform. Each long-lift platform is thus, at all times, when papering out is proceeding, receiving or delivering fabric nstead of as hitherto one of them simply receiving a pile of ejected papers.

For turning a pile of fabrics, that is to say changing the position of the press papers so that the portions of fabric which have been exposed at the edges of the pile are moved towards the centre line of the platfor1n, thetwo long-lift platforms are used as at present, the papers being slided across from one platform to the other and the position of the fabric changed.

It will be apparent to those skilled'in the art of cloth pressing that the improvement described, whilst involving comparatively little additional cost, enables the output of a pressing plant to be very considerably increased wFth the employment of little or no additional labour.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: l i

Papering apparatus for fabric comprising two adjacent vertically movable platforms for support ng piles of folded fabrics, separate means for guiding the fabric to and from each of said tables, and vertically movable paper platforms at the opposite sides of the fabric platforms, whereby as either fabric platform is raised to remove one fabric therefrom and the other fabric platform is lowered to pile another folded fabric thereon, the papers may be readily ransferred from the fabric which is being raised to the fabric which is being lowered and the corresponding paper table.

In testimony whereof weaffix our signatures. I

' ARNOLD DOUGLAS HEATON.

JOHN OBADIAH LANG.' 

